Senate Leaders Are at Temporary Impasse Over Year-End Agenda

Dec. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Senate Minority Leader Mitch
McConnell is pressing for the Senate to complete work on a $1
trillion measure to fund the government before taking up a
payroll tax-cut extension, putting him at odds with Senate
Democrats as lawmakers try to finish work for the year.

McConnell today objected to Senate Majority Leader Harry
Reid’s push for a speedy vote on a payroll tax-cut extension
passed by the House yesterday on a 234-193 vote. McConnell said
senators should first resolve issues in a spending measure to
fund agencies for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1.

A temporary extension of agency spending authority expires
Dec. 16, and without action by Congress a partial government
shutdown will occur.

“That’s our most immediate concern and we should address
it first because the deadline is just two days away,” said
McConnell, a Kentucky Republican.

Democratic leaders have said they are holding up the
spending bill to force a compromise with Republicans on the
payroll tax cut, set to expire at year’s end. Both sides
disagree on such matters as how to pay for the tax cut, proposed
changes to unemployment benefits and whether to include language
speeding approval of a Canadian pipeline.

Reid wants the Senate to take up the House payroll tax bill
that contains Republican priorities, knowing it will be
rejected, to help spur final negotiations.

Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said on the Senate floor that
McConnell is “living in a world of non-reality” to insist the
spending measure move before a measure with the payroll tax cut
benefiting the middle class.